Diana Ross may have formally “introduced” the world to a young pop-soul group called the Jackson 5 (whose 1970 debut album was entitled “Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5”), but Gladys Knight deserves the real credit.

Knight, who was signed to Motown Records in 1966 as the leader of Gladys Knight & The Pips, tipped off Motown honcho Berry Gordy Jr. about the Jackson 5 in 1967. That was two years before Ross and Gordy first heard the Jackson 5 at a concert in Indiana, after which Gordy signed the Jacksons, moved them to Los Angeles and had them open a Diana Ross & The Supremes concert at the Hollywood Palace.

That isn’t the only first for Knight, who performs here (sans retired Pips) Sunday at Harrah’s Rincon’s Open Sky Theater in Valley Center. She and the Pips scored a No. 2 hit with the original version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” in 1967, a year before the better-known version by Motown label mates Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell topped that charts.

Another first, although of less note aesthetically, is that in 1999 — after she had converted to Mormonism — Knight became the first Motown alum to record an album that included not one, but two, songs co-written by U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Hatch, thus far, has refrained from covering such propulsive Knight/Pips hits as “The Nitty Gritty” and “Daddy Could Swear, I Declare.”

As versatile as she is talented, she has duetted over the years with Ray Charles, B.B. King, Elton John, Brook Benton and Bill Medley. Her most recent album, the elegantly orchestrated “Before Me,” places her distinctive stamp on such classics as Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday,” Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child” and the Gershwins’ “Someone to Watch Over Me.” At 67, Knight still has star power and charisma to spare.